If you enjoy Japanese-style (wafu) pasta, you‘ll love this Ume Shiso Pasta. Here, we toss spaghetti in olive oil, garlic, umeboshi, and soy sauce and top it with nori and perilla leaves. Combining simple Japanese and Italian flavors brings out the best of both worlds.
Have you tried Japanese-style (wafu) pasta before? Japanese-style pasta is very popular in Japan, but outside of Japan they are typically not offered in Japanese restaurants. I’ve received many requests for Japanese-style pasta recipes from readers and today I’m going to share a popular wafu pasta recipe, Ume Shiso Pasta.
What are ume and shiso?
Shiso (or shiso leaves or perilla) looks like this. It’s a popular Japanese herb used in many Japanese cooking recipes. It’s usually garnished on top of food or mixed in the ingredients. I’ve used it in many of my recipes including Salmon & Ikura Don to add green color and flavor to the dish, and also for decorating dishes like Chicken Nanban. You might have seen it when you ordered sashimi/sushi and the chef used shiso leaves as garnish.
I introduced quite a few recipes with shiso in my first two years of blogging but learned that this is not an easy ingredient to purchase for a lot of readers. Therefore I’ve tried avoiding it in my recipes even though I love this Japanese herb. Shiso has a unique and refreshing flavor so I hope you can find it in your local Japanese grocery stores, or plant one in your herb garden (they are easy to grow).
Ume or umeboshi is Japanese salted plums or Japanese pickled plums that look like this. Umeboshi are a popular kind of Japanese pickles (Tsukemono) and they are extremely sour and salty. We usually serve umeboshi with rice or in Rice Balls (Onigiri). Shiso and umeboshi go well together and they are the key ingredients for creating the delicate and refreshing flavor for today’s pasta. If you can’t find umeboshi, you may substitute with Neri Ume (Japanese Umeboshi Plum Paste)
The key to tasty Ume Shiso Pasta is to keep ingredients minimal; otherwise, the pasta will be overwhelmed with too many flavors and you won’t be able to enjoy ume and shiso flavors. For this recipe, I added chicken and buna shimeji mushrooms and they work really well with ume and shiso.
I used chicken tender for this recipe because this part of the chicken is very tender and stays moist after it’s cooked. But if you cannot get chicken tenders in your local market, you can replace it with chicken breasts or thighs.
This dish requires only 20 minutes from start to finish and it is a perfect light meal for upcoming warm summer days. To be honest, this is probably one of my favorite Japanese-style pasta she made. I hope you give this a try. You’ll love how simple ingredients play well in this quick recipe.
Try These Other Pasta Recipes
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Ume Shiso Pasta
Video
Ingredients
- 8 oz spaghetti (4 oz, 113 g per person)
- 10–20 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) (for garnish; I like to use a lot for more flavor)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1.8 oz shimeji mushrooms (½ package)
- 2 pieces umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums)
- 4 pieces chicken tenders (also called chicken fingers or strips; these strips of white meat from either side of the breastbone stay moist when cooked)
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or use 1 Tbsp for a nonstick pan)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- ¼ cup shredded nori seaweed (kizami nori) (for garnish)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Cook 8 oz spaghetti in lightly salted boiling water. Boil about 1 minute less than the package instructions as we will cook the spaghetti further in the sauce. Make sure to reserve ½ cup of pasta cooking water before you drain the spaghetti into a colander.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Meanwhile, roll up 10–20 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) and julienne into thin strips. Set aside for garnish.
- Slice 2 cloves garlic and discard the bottom (root) end of 1.8 oz shimeji mushrooms.
- Remove a seed from 2 pieces umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums) and discard. Then, mince the flesh into small pieces.
- Slice 4 pieces chicken tenders diagonally into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces; I use a Japanese cutting technique called sogigiri. Season the chicken with ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Sprinkle 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour) over the chicken and coat it well with your hands.
To Cook the Ume Shiso Pasta
- Heat 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil on medium-high heat and cook the garlic until fragrant.
- Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Then, add the shimeji mushrooms and cook until coated with oil.
- Add the minced umeboshi, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, and half (¼ cup) of the reserved pasta cooking water.
- When the chicken is coated with the sauce, add the drained spaghetti to the pan.
- Using tongs, coat the spaghetti well with the sauce. If you need more sauce, add more pasta cooking water and soy sauce and adjust the flavor. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste.
To Serve
- Garnish the Ume Shiso Pasta with julienned shiso leaves and ¼ cup shredded nori seaweed (kizami nori) on top and serve.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
Hello Nami! We tried this dish a couple of days ago and were blown away at how delicious it was! (I should not be surprised, all the recipes we’ve tried from your site are delicious. :)) Definitely putting it into regular rotation this summer with all the shiso we’ve got growing in our balcony garden. Do you think adding some veggies to the pasta might work? I was thinking maybe steamed broccoli or zucchini, just for extra nutrition. I served this with an impromptu tomato salad with shiso, ponzu, olive oil and a bit of sesame oil and it was a great burst of freshness.
Hello, Yvette! Thank you so much for taking the time to read Nami’s post and try her recipes!
Nami and all of us at JOC are happy that you enjoy Ume Shiso Pasta as much as we do!
To add the broccoli or zucchini, you may need to increase the condiment in this recipe to balance out the flavor and keep the original flavor.
You can also add steamed vegetables as a side dish to balance the nutrition. We hope this helps!😊
how do you reheat the leftovers?
Hi MH Syin, Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind review.
The microwave is the most convenient way to reheat this dish.
We hope this helps!